Character Generation Project: The Edge of Midnight

It's been a while since we did one of these, so those of you who are new to the blog can find an overview of what's the Character Generation Project is all about here. Stephanie's overview of her normal approach to character generation is found here.

As usual, the standard questions are in bold text and Stephanie's answers are non-bolded.  Any comments I have are italicized.

Which game is this for?  

As usual, you can click on the sheet to see it larger.

The Edge of Midnight

How long did it take you to generate the character?  

About half an hour

What was your character concept going into generation?  

Lois Lane in a Micky Spillane novel

Did you feel like character generation captured the flavor of the setting?  

Yes

How much control did you feel like you had during character generation?  

A good amount

Did the game help you make the character you wanted, or did it feel like you were fighting the game?  

Yes, but the initial skill point caps were a bit frustrating.
A number of games allow for PCs who are "hypercapable" - that is, they can do everything very easily. To keep players from focusing on one skill, they'll often limit the number of points you can spend on each individual skill. This game gives you a lot of skill points right off the bat, but wants characters who are moderately capable in a variety of fields, and so you have relatively tight skill caps. It means that it feels like you have a ton of points to play with.

Do you like the character you ended up with?  

Yes

Do you think your character fits your concept?  

Yes

Do you feel like your character would be effective and/or useful in a game?  

She’s more of an investigator than a fighter, but I think she would be useful.

Was there anything in particular that you struggled with mechanically?  

Limiting the skill caps meant I was looking to spend the extra points.  Is there any reason not to spend all the points?

Did anything run more smoothly than you had expected?  

Overall, it went faster than I expected.

What changes would you have made to the character generation process?  

Going back to the skill points, either give a character fewer starting points or increase the initial caps.

Did anything leap out at you as obviously broken or unbalanced?  

Gaunts could be broken in a fight, but I think the other drawbacks and limits help balance that.

What led you to choose this game as the next one to make a character for?  

I had the book with me, and I was interested in how the combination of noir and magic would work.

How would you compare your experience with this game to your experience with other games?  

It went very quickly.

Is this a character you would be willing to play in a campaign?  

Yes

Does this character make you want to play this game?  

Yes

Do you have any other questions, comments, etc.?  

I’d like to see if this game would be better for a campaign, or a one-shot.

Have you given any thought to what game you'd like to do next?  

Not sure yet

Kemet

So now that I'm done with my responsibilities with regards to Kemet, how do I really feel about the game?  After all, I received a copy early specifically so I could write a cover article for Game Trade Magazine about it.  And then I had to write about 800 words about it - someone else's word count to someone else's deadline ...

The fact is, I love this game.  I really do.

It's not difficult to learn, and is the best game I have ever seen for discouraging turtling (which is a real problem in war games).

It wasn't long before I started seeing, "X Tile Is Broken!" on the Boardgamegeek forums - but that was not a surprise.  Because every single tile in the game is broken.  The key is to find the ones that break in favor of your preferred strategy - or which counter what your opponent is doing.

And the reviews have been mostly positive.  People that have played the game have liked the game.  Which matches my perception in person, too.  Every week I fail to bring it, I get requests for it.  Every. Week.  From a variety of folks.  I've only had one friend who was lukewarm to cool about the game.  He disliked that some tiles seemed more important than others - and, while I see his point, I disagree with it.  Which tiles are important depends on your strategy and that of your opponents.  If you are only moving one space, then the ability to bypass city walls, for example, is meaningless.  If you are already bypassing city walls, then you probably don't want to buy the Phoenix - there are better creatures for you.

Are there issues?  A few. But it looks like most of the inevitable complainers are all missing different things, which tells me they are probably only reading the rulebook through once before playing.  Or else they assume they won't miss anything - I miss things even on a third read-through with some games, so I always read through at least twice before trying to teaching.

I am not the wargamer I used to be - I still love Empires in Arms, don't get me wrong, here - but more and more I'm enjoying games I can play in an evening.  And it's hard to find a good war-flavored game that does that.  Kemet fits the bill. An argument can be made for Eclipse, but it's not really a wargame - it's a 4X.

Kemet has earned its place in my car. And it's seeing regular play on Wednesdays - even when I'm not playing, it's occasionally in use.  That, for me, is a sign of a good game.

Character Generation Project: Dark Harvest: The Legacy of Frankenstein

It's been a while since we did one of these, so those of you who are new to the blog can find an overview of what's the Character Generation Project is all about here. Stephanie's overview of her normal approach to character generation is found here.

Stephanie - as you probably are not aware - is a huge Frankenstein fan.  She's read a ton of Frankenstein books, comic books, short stories, and so on.

A few years ago, I wrote about Victoriana.  In that review, I mentioned Dark Harvest: Legacy of Frankenstein.  A few days after the post went live, I received an e-mail from Iain Lowson, offering a review copy of the game to me.  I thanked him for the offer, and informed him that I already had the game.

Obviously, I still have it. And last year, a supplement was been released.  So I figured it would not be a bad time to ask Stephanie to make a character for the game.

As usual, the questions are in bold text, and Stephanie's answers are in plain text.

Which game is this for? 

As usual, you can click on the sheets
to see them larger on Flickr.

 Dark Harvest: Legacy of Frankenstein

How long did it take you to generate the character? 

 About 1 hour

What was your character concept going into generation?  
Lady scientist/professor (the boffin from Scott Westerfeld’s Leviathan)
 
Did you feel like character generation captured the flavor of the setting?  
Yes
 
How much control did you feel like you had during character generation?  
A fair amount.
 
Did the game help you make the character you wanted, or did it feel like you were fighting the game?  
My character ended up a bit darker than I anticipated.

Do you like the character you ended up with?  
Yes.
 
Do you think your character fits your concept?  
Again, darker than I anticipated, but she works better in the setting than my original idea.
 
Do you feel like your character would be effective and/or useful in a game?  
Pretty effective - she can shoot well, and would be good for B.S.ing the party out of trouble.
 
Was there anything in particular that you struggled with mechanically?  
Not so much struggled, but there was a passing reference to magic, but no mechanics around it.  I think it must be in the core book of Victoriana?
 
Did anything run more smoothly than you had expected?  
Overall, it ran pretty smoothly.
 
What changes would you have made to the character generation process?  
It was a little disjointed in how the book was laid out regarding everything you spend Character Points on - it took a little bit of back and forth to make sure I understood everything.
 
Did anything leap out at you as obviously broken or unbalanced?  
The augmentations could potentially be broken, depending on how people roll on the surgery chart.
 
What led you to choose this game as the next one to make a character for?  
One word - Frankenstein.
 
How would you compare your experience with this game to your experience with other games?  
Pretty simple, and reasonably straightforward.

Is this a character you would be willing to play in a campaign?  
Heck yeah!
 
Does this character make you want to play this game?  
See previous answer.
 
Do you have any other questions, comments, etc.?  
I want to read the entire book, because it’s half anthology, half game book.

Have you given any thought to what game you'd like to do next?  
The Edge of Midnight

Comicon Aftermath

I had a great time at Comicon - not least because it gave me a chance to meet in person a couple of people who have been friends online for a bit, now.

As you probably remember from last week, I was there to run 13th Age demos.

The game area at Comicon was ... my good friend +Wade Rockett joked that they should call it "Mom's Basement" - because we were not very visible at all, and so if you weren't looking for games, you would never accidentally stumble across them.  Which was a shame. And we were in the basement.

But traffic down there was surprisingly steady - I think Wizards of the Coast and Paizo had made a big push to get the word out. And that push was greatly appreciated by everyone in the area.

The tables we had were apparently gifted to us by Gamerati, which was nice of them.

The tables were land-locked (not along an aisle), meaning it was that much harder to get players. But we did what we could.

The first demo on Saturday morning started when a man stopped by and asked, "Can you play a dragon in this game?"

I think the best way to highlight how much fun people had at the con with the demo is to list the One Unique Things which I saw and/or heard about:

• I was raised by a family of zombies (The character's name was Graaaaaaaar).
• I have the Mark of the Black Heart, which leaves visible marks on my face.
• I am the only housebroken dwarf (My response to this was, "Really?"  to which was told, "Well, they live in caves, don't they?").
• I use mathematical equations instead of rituals to cast spells
• I was born with a wooden thumb.
• I am an embarrassing bastard of the Dwarf King.
• I once spoke with Gorogan's Maw (it's a face that appears on the map).
• The Great Gold Wyrm revived me as a being of light after my body was destroyed when the Abyss opened.
• I have an iron cast on my left leg which slows me down so my heart doesn't explode.
• I'm too old for this shit.
• I can't tell the difference between dragons.
• I am slowly turning into living iron, starting with my feet.

So you can tell people had fun.

I didn't run a ton of demos, but I gave a ton of spiels.  We had a number of players who were Pathfinder Society DMs or who were official Wizards of the Coast Demo Folk. And they referred others to our tables, which was nice. And it told me that the game was on target.

I know we made some sales, too.  One guy came in on Saturday with his Escalation Edition PDF on his tablet.  "After last night's demo," he said, "I knew I had to own this one."

Sunday evening, after the convention, most of us headed out for dinner with Rob Heinsoo, one of the designers.  We had a great time and talked about a bunch of different games and the industry and just generally had a great time.

Emerald City Comic Con

Apparently I will be at Emerald City Comic Con this weekend running 13th Age demos.

I haven't run an RPG demo at a convention in quite a long while - I've been running board game demos for a good long while.  But RPG demos are an entirely different animal.

There are a number of good points here:

1) It's a game I like.  A lot. I'm currently in a game that I'm very much enjoying.

2) I'm mostly familiar with it - obviously, I'll need to go over it and refresh myself on a few of the rules. But I'm mostly ready to go.

3) There is a scenario already set up and ready-to-go.  It's on Pelgrane's website. And I've already read through it a few times.  It's actually pretty basic - but it highlights the strengths of the game.

4) I'm already "in shape" with my GM skills.  I'm not the best GM - and I have no illusions about that - but I do enjoy it.

5) I enjoy introducing people to things I like.  Conventions are an excellent opportunity in which to do that.

So what do I dread?

1) RPG demos differ from board game demos in one significant way: they depend to a much greater extent on the people who are involved.  While one difficult person can make a board game demo difficult, it doesn't often color the perception of the game.  But one difficult person can utterly destroy an RPG demo.

2) I really really don't like crowds. GenCon is pretty difficult for me, believe it or not. Until after the first demo or two - I just need to remember that these are my people.  Because they really are. Even at a comic convention, the attendees are my people.  We are all geeks - and I'll admit to being a low-level comic book geek.

So we'll see how it shakes out.

I'll let you know, probably next week.

The following week, I'll have a character from my wife.

That should give me plenty of time to get a post or two together, despite the upcoming chaos at work.

Chaotic March + More D&D Reprints

Short post this week - my situation at work is suddenly in flux, as we have someone who is leaving the company.  This means that I may be working 10+ hours per day.

This means less time to write and/or think about games and game-related things.

So until further notice, please be aware that my posting schedule may become erratic.  I'm going to try to keep my normal schedule up as much as possible, mind you, but there will be slips and possibly missed days.

With that said, have you seen Wizards of the Coast's latest plan to make huge piles of money?

This one - if my Google Plus Circles are any indication - will do the trick.

It's a reprint of the original white box D&D. In a deluxe wooden box. With four additional supplements and new cover art.

The text lists seven books.  The picture shows eight.  The picture also shows dice which aren't listed in the contents list.  So there is some question about what will be in there.

Either way, it's $150.

Seriously.

So now they've reprinted the 1E AD&D PHB GMG and MM - all of which gave a cut of money to the Gygax Memorial Fund.

Then they reprinted the 3.5 D&D PHB GMG and MM.  Then the 1E Unearthed Arcana.  And now this.  None of these are called out as giving money to the Gygax Memorial Fund - they're just cash grabs. Rather blatant cash grabs, at that.

It makes sense - the Old School Renaissance is putting out a ton of 1E clones and seems to be self-sustaining. So there is a market for that 1E product.  And Pathfinder is big money right now, too, so the 3.5 reprints might land them a share of that cash cow.

And I've heard from several places that Hasbro is worried about the profitability of D&D.  It is, after all, the best-known and most-recognized brand name in the entire role-playing game industry.  By a long ways.  It should be much more profitable than it is.

These reprints?  Think about how cheap it is for WotC to produce them.  You spend a couple of hundred dollars hiring an artist for new covers.  Then there is production costs (which are not small, but are still much lower than cover price). These prices are essentially the same for any book - so why are these cheaper to produce?

Because you don't need product development.  You don't need to pay any writers or editors or R&D teams.  You just need someone to scan the old stuff into a computer (because it predates desktop publishing), and check it for scanning errors.

So even though the quality of the product is higher than most of their stuff, these are probably less expensive to produce than "current" products - and they sell for a higher price.

It's a good move from a business standpoint.

I'm not saying I think it's a bad thing - I'll probably end up grabbing one of those boxes. And the Unearthed Arcana book at some point.

I just really wish that WotC were continuing to support the Gygax Memorial Fund.

Game of the Year: The Early Contenders

We're now half-way to GenCon. Already.

As I've done for the last few years, I'm going to award Gamethyme's Game Of The Year while I'm at the show.

As we're half-way there, I figured I'd better list the candidates and highlight a few frontrunners.

Today, I'm going to do it in reverse order of times played.

Zombicide - I played this at a friend's house.  I honestly wasn't too upset at having missed the Kickstarter until I played it.  We purchased it less than a week later, but I've still only logged one play.

Shave a Sheep - it'a long shot at best.  My nephews really enjoyed this, but it's a bit too random for me to enjoy playing a lot of this one.

Panic on Wall Street - This game will play with smaller crowds, but it really starts to shine a bit once the crowd gets closer to the eleven it'll handle.  It reminds me of Pit, because there aren't "turns" - once the game is on, it's on, with all players simultaneously trying to negotiate with all other players.

Tsuro of the Seas - Another Kickstarted game that I didn't Kickstart.  I will eventually pick this one up - it's different enough from basic Tsuro that I see the value in owning it.

River Dragons - on further checking, it's not really eligible this year, because I played Dragon Delta in 2007.  But it really should be.  The new edition is amazing.

Mythic Battles - I got my contributor copy of this one at GenCon.  I really like it, and it makes me wish I played more two-player games these days.  The only problem I have with the game is that when you play at the 100 point level, each player looks at their options and chooses the one or two units not to use.  It's not the most difficult of choices.  There is an expansion coming this year which will alleviate most of the problem. And add some new cool things to the game.

Kemet - I like this game.  A lot.  Enough that I was willing to write an article for Game Trade Magazine for it.  It's the only wargame I know of where turtling is almost never a good idea.  The closest you should get is coiling like a snake - getting ready to strike. And the components are exceptional.

Fame Us - Another fun filler game.  I'll admit that, had I been spending money, I wouldn't have bought into the pink box with a glittery cover. But with the right group, this is a total riot.  The hidden teams aspect of the game keeps  the voting fair and unbiased.  This one is surprisingly entertaining.  Note: The box pictured on Amazon doesn't match my box, so they may have changed it.

Seasons - A big GenCon release.  It was actually several months before I got my copy, which I immediately played a bunch of.  It's seeing less play, now, but it's still in the car.  And there is an expansion coming.  I really like this game - in large part because I'm not playing Magic: the Gathering anymore and this scratches that itch without a $3k investment necessary on my part.

Gentlemen Thieves - A hidden role shift-alliances game.  The more I play this one, the more I appreciate it. Once the game is explained (which takes about five minutes), the game is on.  Usually the players have been able to figure out who is who by the end, but not always.  This game needs more love, because it's really good.

City of Horror - This one continues to be a favorite.  I think I raved about it in October or November.

Mutant Meeples - This is the only game on the list I Kickstarted.  And it was delayed and delayed and delayed.  And, now that it's here, I don't mind the wait.  It's a ton of fun, and we've been playing it a ton.  In fact, this is my most-played game since GenCon.